Faith Matters: Equality in education in Connecticut

By Bishop Peter A. Rosazza

Published
8:32 pm EDT, Friday, October 21, 2016

What is the element all of us in our society have in common in the midst of such diversity? To me it is the God-given dignity that each human being possesses along with the solidarity of our human race.

Within our nation and state there is much diversity that often contributes to making us more alive and creative. There are diverse cultural traditions kept alive by the descendants of immigrants. We see natural diversity in this vast country with its majestic mountains and plains and oceans. People live in cities, suburbs and rural areas.

There are some areas where diversity fails, mainly in Connecticut’s cities but also in rural areas where people are poor and suffering from high unemployment, sub-standard housing and less effective public schools.

In other states, large cities encompass sections that are more affluent that can contribute to the common good, balancing those that are poorer. In Connecticut, that is not the case. Because of our history, there are 169 towns, politically independent one from another.

This does not mean that cities and towns are independent in reality. Studies have shown that the health of inner-ring suburbs such as East Haven and Hamden, and even Woodbridge, depend on the well-being of the central city, in this case, New Haven. New Haven provides the majority of jobs as people commute to work in the hospitals and other enterprises. And it offers cultural activities and fine restaurants. So a healthy New Haven is in the interest of all who live in the greater metropolitan area. An example neatly sums this up. Two men are in a rowboat and one remarks, “Oh, you have a hole in your side of the boat.”

In Connecticut, individual towns and cities raise their revenues principally from the property tax, a large portion of which goes to fund public education. Unfortunately, much of the cities’ land is not taxable. And it is here that the unfairness, lest I say injustice, becomes more visible.

Approximately 51 percent of New Haven’s land is not taxable because of government, municipal, educational and church buildings, for example. Though the state compensates New Haven with a grant called PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes), it does not reach the amount New Haven could raise were more of its lands taxable as are those in Woodbridge or Orange, for example.

Thus dependence on the property tax to pay for public education contributes greatly to the inequality between cities and suburbs that moved Superior Court Judge Thomas Moukawsher to assert that “Connecticut is defaulting on its constitutional duty” to give all children an adequate education.

He said in effect that the current system “has left rich school districts to flourish and poor school districts to flounder,” in opposition to our state Constitution that promises children a “fair opportunity for an elementary and secondary school education.”

How the inequality can be remedied is open to serious debate. One thing is certain, however. This problem must be addressed and resolved. No one should be indifferent to the fact that hundreds, even thousands of children in cities and other underprivileged areas do not have access to an educational opportunity equal to that of those in more affluent areas.

This is not only a political question but a moral one, as well. If children lack a solid educational foundation, it is strongly possible that their minds will not develop as they might under better circumstances. As the second-century bishop and martyr St. Irenaeus said, “The glory of God is the human being fully alive.”

May God give our people in Connecticut and our leaders the wisdom and the inner strength to resolve this problem so that we can truly become one nation and one state, under God, with liberty and justice for all.